Bay Village artists help create public art installation

On May 12 budding artists at the Bay Village Library helped paint a canvas that will become part of a public art installation at Cuyahoga County Public Library's Parma-Snow Branch. The young painters worked with artist Augusto Bordelois in a style called action painting which began with some of the participants painting blindfolded.

Everyone helped make sure all the white space on the canvas was covered with different colors of paint. Once the entire canvas was covered, the group worked together to decide what they saw, a process similar to looking at clouds and seeing shapes. Once they discovered the outline of a horse, the artists focused on more detailed components to turn the painting into a unicorn and decorate the background.

The library will unveil the art installation with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 12 at the Parma-Snow Branch. The art installation will combine the work of artists from many of CCPL's 27 branches. The ceremony is being held in conjunction with a visit from award-winning children's author Kate DiCamillo as the installation is inspired by her mission, "Stories Connect Us."

DiCamillo is the winner of two Newbery Medals and a Newbery Honor and well-known for writing the beloved favorites "Because of Winn-Dixie," "The Tale of Despereaux" and more recently "Flora and Ulysses". As the 2014-2015 U.S. National Ambassador for Young People's Literature she has traveled the country raising awareness of the importance of children's literature, education and lifelong literacy.

Join readers from across the county at the Parma-Snow Branch on August 12 for this exciting event which begins at 5 p.m. with the art installation ribbon cutting ceremony and continues from 5:30-6:30 p.m. with a brown bag picnic and ice cream social. Bring a picnic meal to share with your family and the library will provide the ice cream. The final portion of the event begins at 7 p.m. when Kate DiCamillo will talk about her work and answer questions from the audience. A book signing will follow. To register for the event, visit cuyahogalibrary.org or call 216-661-4240.

Sarah Polace

Sarah Polace is the children's librarian at the Bay Village Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library System.